Seattle Seahawk Safety assualted

Gheez, that's some tragic as well as macho/stupid crap...

Football players at clubs are case studies for human beings at their most repugnant.

I'm not glad he's got a blood clot in his brain, but if the club owner's story is true (and I believe him over Hamlin's girlfriend), I'm not really sad about it at all either.

At the least it is pretty clear that he could have walked away at several points from the video. He's a moron. And while no one deserves to have his head bashed in, when you and your punk friends go after two guys when those guys are willing to walk away and you cold cock a guy as he walks away then you give him justification to defend himself. Wacking a guy in the noggin with a street sign may go beyond self defense. But then again if a group of people are assaulting you it might not be too much. Either way it appears that Hamlin instigated the violence.

With this guy now dead according to news reports it looks like this will turn out like the Ray Lewis incident where there is a fight at a nightclub and then his buddies off the other guy.

I'm not sure how you know that he is a good guy.

He's a good guy because he plays football for my favorite team!

I read an article in the Seattle Something or other that finishes with this paragraph:

The concern today is for Hamlin's health. But something has to be done to keep players out of harm's way. To protect players from the public and, in some cases, from themselves.

Win a couple of games and you should be able to rape and pillage.

If he dies they'll make a martyr of him. That's probably reason #1 I don't want him to die.

I agree that it's difficult to feel any sympathy for Hamlin. There's no excuse for any kind of aggression in a bar or club, especially when alcohol is involved. Personally, even if a band is playing heavier music and the vibe turns a bit more aggressive at the bar than I'd like, I accept it and leave. Mostly everyone tends to walk on eggshells normally anyway, apologizing for bumping into each other and so on. But even if you perceive that someone just insulted you, there's no need to be in that kind of environment. Walk away or leave. If it's any kind of a quality hangout, bouncers will be all over the aggressor in no time if things escalate.

Football is the antithesis of a sport; it typically causes you to come out physically worse than better.

Oh please, that is the case in virtually any sport at the professional level.

At the high school level, you're just as likely to sustain a severe injury playing soccer as you are football.

I came through high school football in great shape. It was skiing in college and soccer a year ago that have permanently screwed my knee.

See this article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...082100683.html


I'll paste in a quick little summary, written by Gregg Easterbrook, writing for nfl.com

Still, we are left with the question of whether Herrion's death, or any football-related death, represents an indictment of the sport. This Washington Post story summarizes medical research on the relative risks of childhood activities, including sports participation. Football, as might be guessed, was found the riskiest sport for children and teens as regards minor injuries -- a football player was twice as likely to sustain a minor injury as a basketball player, and five times as likely to sustain a minor injury as a skateboarder. But for "level IV injuries," the kinds that require hospitalization, football was only somewhat more risky than other sports. The surprise in the data is that football is not the most dangerous sport when it comes to permanent disabling injuries. Basketball and baseball, the data show, both cause more permanent disabling injuries, compared to the number of participants. Soccer, which many suburban parents now extol as a "harmless" alternative to football, causes permanent disabling injuries at almost exactly the same rate as football.

He doesn't drink heavily? I have not heard anything that indicates he was drunk at the time of this fight but the guy is only 24 years old and he already has three arrests and two convictions for drunk driving. If anything those facts suggest that he's very likely a frequent heavy drinker or at the least an occasional heavy drinker with really bad luck when it comes to getting pulled over by the police (3 times in at most 8 years as a licensed driver). Those facts also suggest that he doesn't have very good judgement and that he doesn't learn from his mistakes.